Max Weiler as a Draughtsman

Dr. Regina Doppelbauer

The work of the painter Max Weiler (1910-2001) has been explored over the past 20 years with the help of numerous exhibitions and scholarly publications. What has heretofore been a lesser-known fact is that he was also an eminent and fascinating draughtsman. In more than seventy years of creative activity, he produced a body of work covering a wide developmental arc and comprising an estimated 4,000 drawings. Here, too, his lifes theme of the pictorial crossover between nature and spirituality took centre stage, and the drawings enter into a dialogue with the paintings. But Max Weiler, in his drawings, also entered upon entirely individual paths that were adequate to the material and showed that he was able to listen deeply to his inspirations.

The research project which originated at the Albertina and has been supported by the Jubilee Fund of the Austrian National Bank intends to provide a comprehensive coverage, registration and scholarly investigation of the material and so to produce a first all-encompassing presentation of this large oeuvre.

The Albertina itself was showing a part of the drawings in exhibitions during the 1990s. Today, the house is in possession of over a hundred drawings and printed art works by Max Weiler, work that is representative of the artists positions in these media. Works on permanent loan from the Batliner Collection and the Max Weiler Private Foundation additionally enabled the Albertina to present further high points of the artists work, including the monumental drawings from the 1980s, such as the 10-meter-long charcoal work Naturgebild (Natural Formation), or the artists confident painterly work from his later stages in life.